Dirt trail may mark the beginning of Somerset County park

View full sizeMike Dill/For the Times of TrentonA worker from Tricon Enterprises Incorporated begins to seal a building at Skillman Village in preparation for asbestos removal prior to demolition in 2011.

MONTGOMERY — A proposed two-mile dirt trail that loops through most of the 247-acre Skillman Park could be open to the public by next spring, marking the debut of the former epileptics village in Montgomery as a county park, Somerset County officials said.

"It’s purely just a conceptual plan at this point," said county planner Thomas Boccino, but a committee overseeing the property has made the trail a top priority. The proposed path would link pieces of existing trails on the park and connect several parking lots.

Construction will be limited, but new signs must be posted and parking improved, said Patricia Walsh, the county’s freeholder director. According to a draft plan, three lots would be refurbished and one constructed.

Fencing will also be set up in certain sections to protect park users, but those areas are still being decided.

As for any plans beyond that, nothing is on the drawing board, Walsh said. "There’s not anything out there right now that we want to do," she said.

Over the next several months, an advisory committee of county officials and Montgomery residents and leaders will continue to discuss what they can be added. But those future discussions, Walsh said, will only revolve around passive recreation, such as additional hiking trails.

The county, meanwhile, has been cleaning up the derelict property, bordered by Route 601 and Burnt Hill Road, of the plants and dead trees that had overtaken the property in the years it fell into disrepair.

The property opened in 1898 as a sanctuary for epileptics and continued as a state-owned psychiatric facility until 1998. Montgomery Township purchased the land in 2007 for $5.9 million, but sold it to the county last year for nearly $16 million to recoup environmental cleanup costs.

Additional details will be decided in September, when the advisory committee will meet next.